oil change

[Laura]

My h3 just hit the 3000 mile mark....whats the oil change time frame...Im old school i guess, Ive always changed it at 3000. Also do we have that oilchange light? (and, I know i have a manual) Its in the house burried under all my crap on my desk.

[Laura]

My h3 just hit the 3000 mile mark....whats the oil change time frame...Im old school i guess, Ive always changed it at 3000. Also do we have that oilchange light? (and, I know i have a manual) Its in the house burried under all my crap on my desk.

[wannabeH3]

5000 miles, yeah you got an oil change light

[fourfourto]

You will also get a call from onstar when you near a oil change. Sign up and they will give you monthly e mail reports and percentage of oil life left .I did my first change at 1,400 miles ill get 2nd done at 4,400-5,000 miles from there I might go with oil life system. Use the find button there are alot of old threads on this subject.

[Laura]

thank you for the reply..I did go do the search button and found alot of info,,also i signed up for the monthly emails with Onstar, thats kinda cool how they tell you about your H3 via the enternet. thanks again

[f5fstop]

Except for the first oil change, I would totally rely on the oil change indicator in the vehicle. It is very well researched, tested, and accurate.
However, (and this is a personal opinion), the first oil change is important, since when breaking in an engine, metal will wear down and cause metal in the oil as the rings seat to the cylinder liners. These are microscopic pieces of metal, but still metal, and the filter does a great job of catching these particles.
Therefore, I always do the first oil change at around 1-2K miles. Primarily, to change the filter, but while under there, I change the oil.

[fourfourto]

f5fstop how far can you go on the oil change indicator before you worry. Whats the max life of oil under perfect conditions.

[f5fstop]

The newer grade oil has great longevity. The oil life indicator system takes into affect, The system itself uses an algorithm that tracks engine revolutions and temperature and predicts oil life based on these parameters and driver use. It looks at temp of oil when the engine is started, how long it runs at operating condition, etc. You will notice that in cold weather, the oil life system will turn on at an earlier mileage then during warm weather driving.
If you do a lot of short drives in the winter, it will turn on sooner. It knows that the engine oil has to be at a certain temp for a specified time period in order to burn off moisture from condensation.
Just remember, the algorithms are created on a particular grade of oil, than is specified in the owner's manual.
Failure to use this grade, or a better grade, will cause the oil life monitor to be inaccurate.

[wannabeH3]

10 or 12k miles prolly... as long as you keep checking your oil level, but if you do that then i think you are weird... however let me know if everything is still ok after 100000 miles and ill do that too!